You get them too.

I’m talking about those direct messages on LinkedIn that you don’t even read because you know in less than a nanosecond that they’re trying to sell you something.

And you just ignore them.

You don’t want to be one of those ignored messages.

Neither do I, which is why I’ve spent a lot of time and practice perfecting my DMs.

LinkedIn was created to facilitate networking and job searches.

Now it’s the social network that freelancers and businesses use to promote themselves and get new clients.

But who said it was easy?

I certainly didn’t.

Look, I’m not here to rub your nose in the hundreds of clients I get on LinkedIn by sending a template message that took me 5 minutes to write.

Truth: I’m not good at lying.

Out of maybe twenty or so messages I send, two work, but those two have already paid for the time I’ve invested.

As you can see, my method is not infallible, but it has a pretty high conversion rate, and that’s what counts.

Want to know how I do it?

Then stay and pay close attention.

Waste your time posting every day or invest it in strategic messaging? It’s up to you

Do you feel depressed when you open LinkedIn and see your competitors’ daily posts and the truisms 🥱people comment on each other’s posts?

Well, don’t, because most people spend a lot of time doing this and get very little return on their precious time.

Let me explain.

These posts only appear in the feeds of the people who follow them, and in most cases these are not their target customers.

So they may get a lot of interaction, but in the end, they get minimal results for the time invested.

The reality is that your potential customers are also busy feeling depressed by the rate at which their competitors are posting, and in the end it all becomes a Catch-22.

To break this vicious cycle, you have to be prepared to take some action.

And that’s what we will see here.

But first, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

The almighty personal brand

My motto is: Less personal branding, more sales.

We are all obsessed with becoming social media celebrities.

But the reality is that only a few achieve real results from all the time and work they put into recording videos, creating presentations, interviews, etc.

If that’s what you want to do, go ahead, I won’t be the one to stop you.

But if you’re someone who doesn’t like competing for people’s attention all the time, and you prefer to invest your time and effort in getting flesh-and-blood clients who will pay you for a gig, then you need to go straight for them.

And one way to do this is with direct messages on LinkedIn and a well-thought-out strategy.

Here is the first step you should take.

Create a list of prospects

LinkedIn is an invaluable source of information.

There you can find those key people who work in the companies or agencies you want to collaborate with or those clients to whom you want to sell your services directly.

LinkedIn is the most effective social network if you sell to other companies (B2B).

If you sell consumer products (B2C), you’d be better off trying other channels such as Instagram or TikTok.  

Here we will focus on B2B.

First, you need to be very clear about who you want to sell to.

Who are those companies that are closest to buying your products/services.

And you know that after having done in-depth research on your buyer persona.

Only then will you be able to search LinkedIn for the companies and contacts within companies to send direct messages to.

Try to write to contacts who have decision-making power within the company.

For example, purchasing managers, marketing managers, HR managers, etc.

Once you have your list of contacts, create an Excel file with the following columns:

An Excel spreadsheet like this will help you easily track your interactions with leads.

In the column that says LinkedIn, copy the link to the person’s profile so you can always find them.

It’s important to note whether they have responded to you, and whether the response was positive or negative.

If you haven’t heard back after three attempts, forget the lead.

Same if you get a negative reply.

Don’t be a nightmare.

If they’re not interested, don’t bother.

I leave at least a week between attempts. Don’t overwhelm them by sending messages every other day.

And don’t be disappointed if you don’t get a reply the first time, I have often received a reply on the third attempt.

People are busy and don’t have time to respond to everything that comes their way. Also, many people don’t check LinkedIn every day.

How to send DMs without paying LinkedIn Premium

LinkedIn Premium is not cheap and I understand if you aren’t planning to pay for it.

Without this mode, you won’t be able to send direct messages to people you aren’t connected to.

Use the free months of LinkedIn Premium to send more DMs, and if you have the basic version, send contact invitations to the people you’ve identified as potential customers.

Ideally, you should have already exchanged comments on their posts, although this isn’t strictly necessary.

My experience is that most people will accept your invitation as long as you’ve added a personal note.

A successful contact request note should have the following ingredients:

• Say that you have similar interests or work in the same industry
• Comment on something positive about the company or person
• If it’s someone very active on LinkedIn, say that you like their posts
• Introduce yourself without trying to sell anything (yet)

These contact request notes have a maximum of 200 characters, so you won’t be able to go into much detail.

This is where you need to use your summarising skills to the maximum and say what is important in very few words.

See a real example of a contact request:

“Hi John,

I saw your post with your own headline for Purple – what a great idea!

I want to see more of your posts 😊

Greetings

Elena”

I wrote this note to an executive of a marketing agency.

We all love to receive positive feedback, with a message like this no one will ignore you.

Now let’s look at an example of a contact note for someone who doesn’t publish, so we can’t comment on anything they’ve posted.

“Hello Carmen,

I have seen that you are involved in personal development, this is a topic that interests me a lot and I thought it would be great to have you as a contact.

Best regards,

Elena”

As you can see, they are simple messages, written in friendly language and without any element that smacks of salesmanship.

If you try to sell too early, they’ll ignore you because they don’t want any more messages from people trying to sell abruptly from minute one.

Not to mention the scams that are so prevalent on LinkedIn!

Now that you have them as a contact, get a little closer.

Most people who contact me on LinkedIn to sell me something try to do so almost immediately after I have accepted them.

This puts me off, so I ignore them. You probably do the same.

Don’t make this mistake when you’re the one approaching people.

Let at least a few days pass before trying.

First, you need to get to know your target customer and think about how you want to approach this second contact.

You might consider that offering your service straight away might work.

And the truth is that many people appreciate getting to the point rather than beating around the bush.

Another way to engage them before sending a sales message is to comment on their posts or send them links to content they might be interested in, such as an article or video on a topic related to their industry.

If you have a lead magnet, it might be a good time to send it to them.

But don’t fool yourself, lead magnets are all the rage and people know very well that they are a preamble to a sale.

And that’s fine.

I mean, if the lead magnet offers value to your prospect and you make them see it that way, they’ll want it, but you have to “sell” it very well, even if it’s a freebie.

Examples of direct messages designed to sell

If you decide to send a pure sales-oriented message, you need to prepare it in advance.

Identify a specific problem that the person or company may have.

Go into detail. Generalities are useless, unconvincing and boring.

Sit down and think about what this person or company needs.

Most want more sales.

Or if it’s someone who is doing pretty well, maybe what they need is more time and you can help them tons of it with your software or service.

Perhaps what they need is more structure in their business, and you help entrepreneurs have more clarity in their goals so they can grow.

Think about the problem your product or service solves and focus on selling them a concrete solution to a concrete problem.

It is also very important to identify what differentiates you from your competitors.

What you have that they don’t or aren’t talking about.

To do this, you will have done your competitive research beforehand, which is essential to building a marketing strategy that works.

If you still don’t know what your unique selling proposition is, don’t miss this article where I guide you step by step to find it.

To understand all this better, let’s look at an example of a message I sent to a Spanish company.

Hello X,

I have seen that (company name) is growing and that you are opening up markets in India and Korea.

Congratulations, it is always a source of pride when a Spanish company does well abroad.

I am writing to you because I have helped several Spanish companies, such as (name and company), which also export abroad, to communicate in English and, as a result, they have seen an increase in their portfolio of clients abroad.

I have helped them to get more leads by using

– Cold emails to prospects

– Persuasive copy that differentiates the product for the web, social media and explanatory brochures.

– Video scripts 

One of the companies I worked for landed two major clients in China, resulting in a 30% increase in their business.

All thanks to the emails and website I wrote for them and, of course, a masterful closing of the sale by the salespeople at the meeting I arranged for them.

I have a lot of experience working with international companies operating in different countries, which helps me find ways to convince and interest potential customers who aren’t familiar with the product.

This is my number- +XXXXXXXXXX

I can also help you get more customers outside of Spain.

Give me a call and I will tell you more about how I can do this.

Best regards,

Elena

I have marked in green the part where I offer my solution and proof of authority by mentioning the names of companies I have worked with.

And in blue the part where I state my Unique Selling Proposition, which is having experience with companies abroad, something that not all copywriters have.

Now you might be thinking, “But, what happens if I’m starting and can’t show or mention any examples of work I’ve done before?”.

Don’t worry. You too can get clients through direct messaging on LinkedIn.

In these cases, you need to highlight your unique proposition even more and try to convince them by showing confidence in your skills.

Let’s take a look at an example of an email (I didn’t send it via LinkedIn, but it would work just the same) that I sent at the beginning of my copywriting career to an international school here where I live in The Hague.

They hired me to write the copy for their website without me having much experience.

I knew they were looking for more students because I saw some posts on Facebook advertising the school.

Their web copy was pretty bad, so it was obvious that they were not working with a copywriter.

This is what I wrote to them:

Email subject: An easier way to get more students

Body of the email

Hello,

I saw that you were advertising your school on Facebook. I clicked on one of the posts and it took me to your website.

That’s when I saw something that caught my attention!

But before I tell you what it is, let me introduce myself.

I’m Elena and I write compelling copy that helps businesses grow.

Although my greatest value is not in the writing…

What really helps my clients sell more is that, after studying their service and that of their competitors, I’m able to bring out that unique value they offer that their competitors don’t.

And not only am I able to identify this key value, but I also express it in an original and convincing way that helps my clients multiply their sales.

This is exactly what struck me about your website.

That although you are the only school in The Hague to offer Mandarin Chinese lessons, you don’t advertise this on your website.

I know this may not appeal to all parents, but it is certainly an important point of differentiation!

I’m sure you have other unique values to emphasise and I can help you identify them and express them in a compelling way to attract the attention of those parents that are looking for a quality school for their children.

Contact me on XXXXXXXXX or reply to this email and I will give you more details on how I can help you attract more students.

Best regards,

Elena

The day after sending this email they called me and I worked with them on the website and Facebook posts.

Why did it work?

Because I used several copywriting techniques that never fail.

1. An email subject line that arouses curiosity. Because if they don’t even open the email, it will be difficult to convince them.
2. An introduction with a hook. I mention a piece of information that interests them at the beginning but don’t reveal it until the end so that they read the whole email.
3. I don’t forget to explain clearly how I can help and I already give a clear example, so they can see that I have spent time researching their school.
4. I create another hook by telling them that I have more details on how I can help them but that they will have to contact me to find out.

You can use the same model also on LinkedIn.

To sum up

Don’t get overwhelmed every single day thinking about what are you going to post on LinkedIn.

Also, don’t spend an inordinate amount of time creating presentations or videos in Canva just to get a “like” from your former co-worker, your childhood neighbour or a peer who is actually relieved to see that you’re not doing better than her….

Spend your time connecting with the people who could be real customers.

If you do it right, the time you spend will be much more profitable.

You can also do both.

I mean, one doesn’t take away from the other.

If personal branding is very important to you and your goal is to become a celebrity in your niche, then go for it, I won’t be the one stopping you.

But if you are frustrated of all the nonsense people post online and want to get real customers faster without wasting your time entering the “look-at-how-wise-and-successful-I-am” game, give DMs a try!